Typographical casting machine



Nov. 2 1954 A. J. STOUGES 2,693,271 I TYPOGRAPHICAL CASTING MACHINE 2 sheets-sheet 1 Filed May 15, 1951 INVENTOR Nov. 2,; 1954 A. J. 'S'TOUGES TYPOGRAPHICAL CASTING MACHINE .Filedi May 1 5, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 NVNTO/i ATTORN m United States Patent@ f "TYPQGRAPHIKJALCASTING MACHINE Anthony J. Stouges, Queens Village, N. Y., assignor to Mergenthaler Linotype Company, a corporation of 1 New York Application May 15,1951, Serial No. 226,344

5 Claims. (Cl. 199-48) This invention relates to typographical casting machines of the general organization represented in United States Letters Patent No.v 436,532 to .O. Mergenthaler, wherein a composed line of character bearing matrices is presented to the face of a slotted mold carried by a rotatable mold wheel or disk, the mold filled with molten metal to form a type bar or slug against the matrices which produce the type characters thereon, and the type bar or slug ejected from the mold and trimmed.

. To enable slugs of different measures to be cast, the mold disk carries a plurality of molds (usually'four or six in number), although only one mold is employed for casting at anygiven time. the parts, the mold in use islocated at the slug ejecting position. During the casting cycle, however, the disk is given, first, a'quarter rotation. to bring the mold into slug casting-position and'then, afterthe slug has been cast, a three-quarter rotation in the same direction to move the mold back to its original. or slug ejecting position. I When the machine is at rest, a different mold may be In the normal position of substituted for the one in use by pulling the mold disk I turning pinion forwardly to uncouple it from its driving mechanism, then rotating it manually to bring the desired 'mold on .the mold disk into operative position, and thereafter pushing the pinion rearwardly to recouple it .to the driving mechanism; V

Every time a mold of one lengthis substituted for a mold of a different length, the ejecting mechanism must be correspondingly adjusted to accommodate the new mold. US. Patents No. 1,868,363 to R. M. OConnor 'et'al. and'No. 2,257,845 to P. Hilpman disclose automatic ejector setting mechanisms which are controlled by. the rotary movement of the mold disk turning pinion.

In other 'words,,when the pinion is pulled forwardly and turned in order to. bring the desired mold into operative position, this'atta'chment automatically sets the ejector to correspond to the length of the slug to be ejected from that particular mold. It should be apparent, therefore,,that when an automatic ejector setting attachment is in use on-the'machine, the relationship between the mold disk and the ejector setting mechanism, once properly fixed, should under no circumstances be disturbed;

The rotatable mold disk, however, is supported by a slide, and by lowering the usual vise frame, which normally, stands in front of the mold disk, and by disengaging the slide from the lever which operates it, the mold disk and, slide may be drawn forwardly by hand a c'onsiderable distance to permit access to the mouthpiece of the metal pot, as well as other parts, for repair, cleaning and inspection. When the mold disk is thus positioned, it is uncoupled from the driving pinion and isfreely rotatable by hand; hence great care has to be exercised by the operator to insure the. proper relative location between the pinion and the disk when the latter is returned to operative position.

Because of this condition, on machines equipped with mold disks carrying four molds, a single rail is supported in afixed bracket located near the edge of the mold disk and somewhatin advance of the normal position thereof so that the rail will always engage, between theteeth of the mold disk when it is drawn forwardly. Accidental disturbance of the relative locations between the disk and pinion is thereby prevented; This arrangement, however, isnot suitable for machines equipped with six molds because the mold disk is provided with 140 teeth, a number not evenly divisible by six, and therefore the rail will not i Pate ntedvNov. 2, 1954 coincide with a space between the teeth in every case regardless of the particular mold in operative position.

According to the present invention, a safety device is provided which will prevent the rotation of the mold disk when it is in its forward position uncoupled from the mold disk turning pinion regardless of the number of molds carried by the disk. The invention is especially applicable to molddisks equipped with six individual molds, but in principle is applicable as well to mold disks equipped with a greater or less number of molds.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of a portion of a Linotype machine equipped with the present mold which is in normal position being the rightward vertically disposed mold (not shown). The mold disk is provided with peripheral gear teeth 1 which engage with a power driven pinion 3, and, during a machine cycle of operation, the mold disk 1 is rotated by the pinion, first, through a quarter revolution in a counterclockwise direction to carrythe mold then in use from its vertical ejecting position tothe top horizontal casting position and, thereafter, through a three-quarter revolution in the same direction to carry the mold back to its vertical ejecting position, where an ejector blade is operated at the proper time, to push the slug forwardly out of the mold. As usual (see Patent No. 758,103), the mold disk turning pinion is operatively coupled by means of a pin to a fore-and-aft power driven shaft 4 (Fig. 4) so that in order to substitute a difierent mold for the one in use, the pinion 3 is pulled forwardly by means of a hand wheel 5 formed integrally therewith until the pinion clears the coupling pin, whereupon the pinion may be rotated manually, free of the drive shaft 4, to turn the mold disk 1 to bring any selected mold in operative position. The pinion is then moved rearwardly to reengage the pin in one of the recesses at the rear of the pinion and so recouple the pinion to the drive shaft 4.

The ejector mechanism employed in such machines comprises, ordinarily, a main ejector slide and a series of blade sections arranged edge to edge in contacting relation, provision being made for connecting any desired number of blade sections to the ejector slide while the other sections remain at rest. In consequence, every time a mold of one length is substituted for a mold of a different length, an adjustment must be made in the number of effective blade sections so that their combined width will accord with the length of the slot in the newly selected mold.

If the machine is equipped with an automatic ejector setting mechanism, this attachment automatically sets the ejector to correspond to the length of the slug to be ejected from the selected mold. The mechanism is well known and, therefore, need not be described herein, but if desired reference may be had to the I -Iilpman Patent No. 2,257,845 before mentioned. It suffices to say that when the mold disk turning pinion 3 is pulled forwardly to change the mold, it is brought into mesh with a gear 6, situated within a housing 7, whilestill in mesh with the mold disk 1. Therefore, as the pinion is manually rotated to adjust the mold disk to its proper position, the pinion also serves to rotate the gear 6 to adjust the ejector mechanism to the prolpier setting which is appropriate for the newly selected mo As explained above, the rotatable mold disk is supported by a slide (not shown), and when the vise frame (not shown), which holds the composed line to be cast in front of the mold is swung downwardly out of the way, the slide may be disconnected from its operating lever and the mold disk drawn forwardly by hand, as indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 4. When the mold disk is so positioned, it is disconnected from the driving pinion 3, and unless the mold disk is prevented from rotation there is danger of disturbing the relative settings of the disk and the ejector mechanism.

To prevent any possibility of accidental turning of the mold disk when it is uncoupled from the driving pinion 3, there is provided, according to the present invention, three fore-and-aft rails or detents 8, d and 8 spaced in parallel relation to each other and so located that at least one of them will always be aligned with and adapted to enter a space between adjacent teeth of the mold disk when the latter is pulled forwardly, irrespective of which of the six available molds is in use and whether the mold is in the normal ejecting position or the casting position. As best shown in Figs. 1 and 5, the three rails occupy separate channels of an elongated slotted block 9 and are normally urged toward engagement with the mold disk by compression springs 10, of which there are two for each rail, one near each end. The rails are each provided with two elongated slots 11 to accommodate pins 12' which are secured, at their ends, in the slotted block 9, and the movement of the rails toward and away from the mold disk is limited by the length of the slots.

In the particular arrangement shown for a standard 140 tooth mold disk which is equipped with six symmetrically arranged molds, the rails are spaced a distance apart approximately one and one-third times the distance between adjacent teeth of the mold disk (although this distance is not critical and other suitable spacing could be calculated). Regardless of which of the six molds is in use, at either the normal ejecting or horizontal casting position, when the mold disk is pulled forwardly, one of the rails will always be positioned to engage between adjacent teeth of the disk to prevent the rotation thereof, and the other two rails which are not so positioned will readily yield against the force of the springs 10 when acted upon by the teeth of the mold disk. In Fig. 1, the middle rail 8' is shown in operative or locking position, whereas in Figs. 2 and 3 the rails 8 and 8, respectively, are shown in such position.

The rails are tapered along their engaging edges to afford a maximum of clearance between the operative rail and the mold disk teeth; also the edges of the rails are bevelled away from the mold disk at the rearward (leftward, in Fig. ends of the rails, in addition to being somewhat rounded at the extreme rearward corners, to permit the teeth of the mold disk to contact the rails at an angle and gradually shift the non-operative rails to their yielded positions.

The slotted block 9 is adjustable bodily toward and away from the mold disk in a stationary housing 13. Compression springs 13 normally urge the block 9,

and hence also the rails 8 8 and 8 which are contained therewithin, into a position for active engagement with the mold disk. The block 9, however, may be withdrawn to and locked in inoperative position by pulling back the knurled knob 14, which is connected thereto by means of a threaded shaft 15, and giving it a quarter turn. With the rails thus retracted, the mold disk may be freely turned. The knob 14 is rotatably mounted on the end of the shaft 15, and in the active position, an elongated collar 14 of the knob 14 fits within an elongated hole of a boss 13 of the housing 13. When the knob is pulled against the force of the springs 13 to retract the detent mechanism to its inoperative position, a one-quarter turn of the knob will misalign the collar in relation to the hole to prevent reengagement, thereby locking the parts in that position.

As shown in Fig. 1, a safety latch 16 is controlled by the just-described locking action. The latch 16 rises from the rear end of a short rock shaft 17, and a lever 18 depends from the front end thereof. In the normal operative position of the retractable slotted block 9, the lever 18 is influenced by a spring 19 which holds the latch in its inactive position shown in Fig. 1. When the block 9 is retracted to inoperative position, however, a pin 20, carried by the block, contacts the lever 18 and thereby swings the latch 16 (against the tension of the spring 19) to its active position (indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1) in front of the mold turning pinion 3. In this position of the parts, it is impossible to pull the mold turning pinion 3 forwardly into engagement with the ejector setting gear 6, an additional safeguard against the mislocation of the mold disk with respect to the ejector mechanism.

A safety stop 21 is pivotally supported within the housing 13, as at 21 and serves to limit the forward displacement of the mold disk. The stop is locked in position by a spring pressed pin 22. In the event that it is desired to draw the mold disk forwardly beyond the stop, the pin 22 may be withdrawn and the stop swung out of the way.

It should be understood that, although the invention has been shown and described for use on machines equipped with mold disks having six molds, it is equally applicable to machines equipped with mold disks having a different number of molds, e. g., five, seven, etc., in which case, however, the number and spacing of the engaging rails might have to be changed accordingly. Also, the present invention, although especially designed for use with an automatic ejector setting mechanism, is equally applicable to machines without such mechanism to prevent any accidental turning of the mold disk in its forward position, such as might result in the wrong size mold being placed in operative position when the mold disk is recoupled to the driving pinion. It is to be understood, therefore, that the invention is not to be limited to any specific form or embodiment except insofar as such limitations are specified in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a typographical casting machine, the combination of a rotatable disk having equally spaced gear teeth extending about its entire periphery and equipped with a plurality of different molds, said disk when the machine is at rest being rotatably adjustable to bring one or another of the molds into operative position, and the number of gear teeth on the mold disk in relation to the number of molds being such that the teeth will occupy different angular positions when different molds are in operative position, a power driven pinion for imparting a complete rotation to the mold disk during each machine cycle to locate the operative mold first in casting position and thereafter in ejecting position, said mold disk when the machine is at rest being movable forwardly in an axial direction beyond its normal operating position out of mesh with the power driven pinion, a plurality of parallel locking rails extending axially of the mold disk but normally located out of the plane of rotation thereof, said rails being spaced apart in different positions in relation to the mold disk gear teeth so that one or another of the rails makes meshing engagement with the gear teeth when the mold disk is moved axially to its forward position, a supporting block mounted on a stationary part of the machine and in which the locking rails are slidable into and out of meshing relation with the mold disk gear teeth, and springs acting constantly to hold all of the locking rails in gear teeth meshing position but permitting the displacement by the gear teeth of those rails which fail to mesh therewith when the mold disk is moved axially forward.

2. A combination according to claim 1, wherein the locking rails are slidable edgewise in the supporting block and are bevelled at their rear ends for edgewise displacement by the gear teeth when the mold disk is moved axially forward.

3. A combination accordingto claim 1, wherein the supporting block for the rails is retractible at will to disable the locking rails when desired.

4. A combination according to claim 1, including an automatic latch, and means actuated by the retraction of the supporting block for activating the latch to prevent the manual operation of the driving pinion when the locking rails are disabled.

5. A combination according to claimv 1, wherein the mold disk is formed with one hundred forty gear teeth and is equipped with six different molds located symmetrically thereon, and wherein there are three locking rail?1 for selective engagement with the mold disk gear teet References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,077,361 Goodbody Apr. 13, 1937 2,116,035 Mead May 3, 1938 2,201,132 Albrecht et al May 21, 1940 

